Recipes from the Wagstaff Miscellany - 163 Capons of Hyee Grece Rostyd

Recipes from the Wagstaff Miscellany (Beinecke MS 163)

This manuscript is dated about 1460.

The 200 (approx.) recipes in the Wagstaff miscellany are on pages 56r through 76v.

Images of the original manuscript are freely available on the Yale University Library website.

I have done my best to provide an accurate, but readable transcription. Common abbreviations have been expanded, the letters thorn and yogh have been replaced with their modern equivalents, and some minor punctuation has been added.

Copyright © 2015 by Daniel Myers, MedievalCookery.com

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163. Capons of Hyee Grece Rostyd
Take a capon of hyghe grece scall hym draw hym at the vent & draw his lyver & his gysere at the gorge & take his lef of grece & percelley & a lytyll ysope & roosemary & a lefe or two of sage & do hem to the grece & hew all to geder & do to hard yolkes of eyron cromyd small & reysons of corauns good pouder saforn & salt medyll thes to gedyr & fas with thes youre capons broch hym loike he be stanch at the vent & at the gorge that the safron go nott out roste hym longe with sokyng kepe the grece that falleth & base hym ther with & kepe hym moyst till thu serve hym forth sauce hym with gyngour as thu doist a nothir.

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This recipe is a match for recipe 98 from A Noble Boke off Cookry.

To rost capon or gose tak and drawe his leuer and his guttes at the vent and his grece at the gorge and tak the leef of grece parsly ysope rosmarye and ij lengs of saige and put to the grece and hew it smale and hew yolks of eggs cromed raissins of corans good poudurs saffron and salt melled to gedure and fers the capon there withe and broche hym and let hym be stanche at the vent and at the gorge that the stuffur go not out and rost hym long with a soking fyere and kep the grece that fallithe to baist hym and kepe hym moist till ye serue hym and sauce hym with wyne and guingere as capons be.  [A Noble Boke off Cookry (England, 1468)]

The Wagstaff version is missing a few words, along with the option of cooking goose, and seems to be a bit confused.